Steeped in a world poisoned with radiation following a worldwide nuclear disaster, Endzone – A World Apart tasks players with a monumental responsibility: build a civilization and maintain the wellbeing of Earth’s last remaining human colony. Much like its genre peers such as Surviving Mars, Frostpunk, or Surviving the Aftermath, players will use the tools at their disposal to build housing structures, develop a functioning electrical system, and maintain stable water and food supplies. Much unlike its competitors, Endzone – A World Apart won’t see players face off against ghastly ghouls and irradiated monstrosities. Instead, violent weather events—such as sandstorms and drought—seek to destroy.
Boasting over 5,000 positive reviews on Steam, Endzone – A World Apart is a lauded addition to the survival sim genre and blends the best of post-apocalyptic survival and city-building, delivering a challenging yet rewarding redemption-style gameplay experience that demands intuition and skill. With the release of the Survivor Edition, the dystopian survival-sim is now available to a whole new class of (console) survival specialists.
Key Features of Endzone’s Console Release Include:
Full UI overhaul: Specially geared to controllers – provides for a comfortable and up-to-date gameplay experience for current-gen consoles
A Bustling Community: The settlement is rarely quiet or dull; fulfill over 90 side missions, all of which are rich in variety and cater to the various needs of your community’s inhabitants
Build, Expand, Survive: With more than 90 different buildings to construct and maintain, including power stations, shelters, water treatment plants, and, unfortunately, cemeteries, colony architects have a vast selection of structures from which to create a flourishing community
Can’t We Order In?: To get fresh supplies and learn new information, scouting parties must engage in Expeditions — which involves leaving the safety of the colony and venturing out into the dangerous wasteland to scavenge valuable resources
Dynamic Radiation Simulator: Keep those iodine pills handy, as Endzone features realistic radiation and humidity values that force players to take into account important details about the soil in which they grow their crops
Endzone – A World Apart: Survivor Edition is available now on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S for $49.99 USD. Thanks to a collaboration with Koch Media, a leading global publishing partner, a physical PlayStation 5 retail version is also available for $49.99, as well as on Amazon exclusively in Europe.
For the latest up-to-date news about Endzone – A World Apart, follow Assemble Entertainment on Twitter, Instagram, “like” on Facebook, and join the official Assemble Discord server.
Motive, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. today announced during their Crafting the Tension Art Developer Livestream that Dead Space™will officially launch on January 27, 2023 for PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Dead Spaceis a remake of the classic sci-fi survival horror game that is being rebuilt from the ground up leveraging the Frostbite™ game engine. Still remaining true to the original game’s thrilling vision, the remake offers enhanced audio and crisp, harrowing visuals that have been carefully reimagined to evoke a new level of immersion and quality.
“Developing this remake has been a lot of fun for us at Motive, as we’re true fans of the franchise and want to treat it with the respect it deserves. It’s been equally exciting to see players’ reactions as we’re taking them on this development journey with us,” said Phillippe Ducharme, Senior Producer of Dead Space. “We’re making great progress on our road to hitting Alpha and we’re happy to announce that the game will be launching in January next year. We can’t wait for players, both old and new, to see how we’ve elevated the original experience in the remake to be just as impactful for this generation.”
Dead Spaceputs players in the boots of Isaac Clarke, an everyman engineer on a routine mission to fix a gigantic mining starship, the USG Ishimura. But aboard the Ishimura, a living nightmare awaits. The ship’s crew has been slaughtered and infected, and Isaac’s girlfriend, Nicole, is missing somewhere on board. Alone and trapped, with only his engineering tools and skills, Isaac faces a battle for survival – not only against terrifying monsters called Necromorphs, but his own crumbling sanity.
Also revealed today in the Dead Space livestream, the team at Motive showcased an early look at how the remake visually evolves and updates the original with in-game props, tools, environments and more being reconstructed to a level of polish and details fit for the next generation of hardware and PCs. Moreover, by combining enhancements like dynamic, volumetric lighting with atmospheric and environmental VFX rendered in full-HDR, Dead Space allows players to confront the frighteningly tight corridors and shadowed hallways of the USG Ishimura with unprecedented levels of immersion for the beloved franchise.
Will Isaac live to unravel the dreadful mystery of what happened to the slaughtered crew and ship, or be forever lost to the cold vacuum of space? Find out when Dead Spaceofficially launches worldwide on January 27, 2023 for PlayStationⓇ5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
For more information and to stay up to date on the remake, visit the official website, like Dead Spaceon Facebook and Instagram, follow the franchise on Twitter and subscribe to its YouTube channel.
Publisher Wired productions and acclaimed Dutch game studio KeokeN Interactive today announce that the award-winning sci-fi thriller Deliver Us The Moon will now launch on 23rd June, 2022 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The astronomical project requires additional development time to prepare the definitive version of the game,allowing for a final polish before we prepare for lift off. The title also sees a physical launch on PlayStation 5, available directly via the Wired store in addition to partners globally.
Featuring fully remastered 4K visuals, celestial ray-traced shadows and reflections, as well as next-gen features, Deliver Us The Moon next-gen adds cosmic proportions of immersion to the sci-fi epic.
Deliver Us The Moon is a sci-fi thriller set in an apocalyptic near future, where Earth’s natural resources are depleted. A lunar colony providing a vital supply of energy has gone silent. A lone astronaut is sent to the moon on a critical mission to save humanity from extinction. Will you save mankind or be forgotten in the dark abyss of Space?
Deliver Us The Moon Features
Tackle real world issues
1st and 3rd Person perspective, including driving numerous vehicles
Vast, open moonscape to explore and discover
Suspense driven action
Anti-gravity gameplay sequences
Clever, challenging puzzles
Haunting, orchestral soundtrack
Powered by Unreal® Engine 4
Next Gen Upgrades
Fully remastered in 4K with ray-traced shadows and reflections
Jump into the action quicker with faster loading times
Adaptive triggers and controller speakers (PlayStation 5)
PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners upgrade to Next Gen version for free
Deliver Us The Moon will launch on June 23rd 2022 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, priced at $24.99 / €24.99 / £19.99 with existing console owners receiving a free digital upgrade.
The PlayStation 5 exclusive physical edition features a double-sided folded poster, a reversible sleeve, a stellar set of stickers, plus a digital download of the Deliver Us The Moon EP. Gamers can register their interest via the Wired Productions store, or find a retailer via Wired’s Where to Buy section.
Deliver Us The Moon will also be launching on Stadia and Stadia Pro, Google’s cloud gaming platform that lets you instantly play video games on screens that you already own, in 2022.
Survive and thrive from the comfort of your couch with Endzone – A World Apart: Survivor Edition, the console version of the award-winning indie survival city-builder. Available May 19th, Endzone invites players to set forth on a mission to renew and fortify the last remaining colony of humans on Earth after over 100 years of nuclear holocaust.
Boasting over 5,300 positive reviews on Steam, Endzone – A World Apart sees to it that players face every realistic triumph and downfall that comes with rebuilding society from the ground up amidst a radioactive wasteland. Colony denizens face realistic and terrifying crises like radioactive soil, scarce clean water supplies, and tumultuous and deadly storms. Despite these foreseen challenges, successful missions, resource gathering, and well-kept infrastructure result in ultimate prosperity…if the right choices are made.
Key Features:
🎮 Specially geared and optimized for controllers – provides for a comfortable and accessible gameplay experience
🏗️ With more than 90 different buildings to construct and maintain, including power stations, shelters, water treatment plants, and, unfortunately, cemeteries, settlement architects have a vast selection of structures from which to create a flourishing civilization
🗺️ To get fresh supplies and learn new information, scouting parties must engage in Expeditions — which involve leaving the safety of the colony and venturing out into the dangerous wasteland to scavenge valuable resources
☢️ Keep those iodine pills handy, as Endzone features realistic radiation and humidity values that force players to take into account important details about the soil in which they grow their crops and the environments they raise children and livestock
Endzone – A World Apart: Survivor Edition launches digitally on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on May 19, 2022.
The Serpent Rogue was developed by Sengi Games out of Ukraine and published by Team17. After a few hours, I could tell this is a flawed but fun game where I just wanted to gather more resources to research more potions so I could gather more resources. It hooked me the same way as Animal Crossing does, just with teeth. This is a mechanics-heavy game, with clockwork systems that govern the decayed beauty in a rogue-like world. It’s a shame that some combat mechanics and difficulty spikes weigh down the fun.
After choosing the body type you want as an avatar you will be transported to a land of “in-between” where you’re introduced to a guide, Solomon. There’s not a ton of setup, but essentially, it’s up to you to deal with a very “Gannon” looking sickness that has infected the world.
You play as a warden, a cross between medieval doctor and alchemist. While you appear to be a bit small and inexperienced as a warden, it’s up to you to brew the sweet healing medicine for a sick and infected world. Although the game has combat, we’ll get into that later, but your prime way of interacting with the environment is through alchemy. Namely, the study of items found in the wild and experimentation of mixing them all together. The system reminds me of the cooking system in Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but a bit more grounded and fleshed out. Overall, I dig it!
The first boss you fight will knock you on your ass, teaching you to first take the time to explore, craft, brew, and befriend some beasties before taking on anything too difficult. You’ll quickly learn, that upon each death, you’ll drop your inventory. It’s up to you to retrieve this or forfeit the contents should you die again. To keep it fresh, the “wilderness” outside of your camp has some randomization after each storm. Did I mention that the blight upon the land comes with contamination storms that reshuffle the raw materials you could scavenge and refresh the infected enemies? It’s fun to try and plan my outings in-between storms to harvest the most of whatever I was looking for.
I appreciated the art design and sound of the world, with its Halloween vibe and renaissance-fair dressing. While I did have some hiccups with the sound bed not looping very smoothly, the sound design is simple but effective. It’s not going to blow your hair back, but given stylized graphics and interface, no single element gets in the way too much.
The movement and combat are the two areas I felt the game lags behind other titles of the genre. While your character’s locomotion is fine, not being able to move the camera took some getting used to. It isn’t that I can’t accept it as a creative choice, it’s that I enjoyed the world and wanted to examine it more. I understand an unlocked camera is probably a development choice made early on, but I keep finding my character running away from enemies that were just outside my view. It requires locking onto an enemy to tell the game to keep it in frame with the main character. This can lead to some unnecessary deaths and can be frustrating if you’re trying to get your inventory back. As a further warning, the only area map I saw was in the upper right-hand corner of your HUD, and it doesn’t do a great job of showing you to the nearest exit when the storm arrives. I would love a dedicated button to pull out a map and see where I was.
The main ways to buff up your character are through alchemy research to develop stronger buffs, forging weapons, and befriending companions. The latter is a much bigger part of the game than I thought. Much of the development is through growing your town and early on you’ll have a chance to make friends with a dog who can help you in combat and carry part of your inventory. It’s important to learn as much about plants as it is to learn different companion preferences to befriend them. Often times it is the difference between life and death.
I really enjoyed the rewarding practice of picking up a new resource and studying it to learn what I could make. I appreciate how crafting is central to The Serpent Rogue’s gameplay loop not supplemental. Oftentimes, I can ignore the crafting system, but I found myself enjoying it much more than the combat or minute-to-minute beats of the game.
I will say that the combat is very simple and feels clunky. It would have been nice to have a bit more finesse in the one-on-one combat portions of the game, especially if it will be used as a gatekeeping mechanic. I have to admit that in addition to the combat not feeling very tight, it was a bit too tough for me. I will say I was not able to see as much of the game as I would have preferred because I got stuck numerous times with a difficulty spike that I could not overcome. Maybe I need to “get good” but I had to restart the game because I ran out of resources to craft a basic ax. Later, I learned that I could have killed some people in my camp and taken it from them, but I’d argue that there should be a basic set of equipment that never goes away as I lost a few hours of a save.
It’s not for everyone and the fun gameplay loop is a bit longer than in other games of the genre. I will say that the crafting and foraging mechanics are polished and fun. While I wish that, there was a bit more of an on-ramp for people who haven’t played the game before, I do see why they have developed a bit of a following. If Animal Crossing with teeth sounds like your kind of game, it’s worth the price of entry.
At first glance Chernobylite would appear to be just another derivative knockoff of games like Metro, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or any of the numerous Fallout games, but it only takes a few minutes of actually playing the game to see this is much, much more. Blending real-world locations and events with crazy paranormal, sci-fi themes, Chernobylite will have you exploring, looting, crafting, sneaking, and engaging in deadly combat with man and monster as you search for your lost love, Tatyana.
Previously played and reviewed on the PC last year, I had a great time with Chernobylite both then and now; perhaps even more so now that the game has been given the royal RTX treatment, adding all new flashy lighting and reflections to bring this world to even greater levels of realism and life. While the PS5 obviously can’t match the presentation of a powerful PC it certain offers one of the best possible experiences on consoles with your choice of 60fps Performance mode rendering at 1080p or a Quality/Resolution mode rendering at 1512p; upscaling nicely to a 4K output. One additional perk is that the PS5 version does not suffer from the infamous shader-render stuttering issues currently plaguing PC games.
You’ll be playing Igor who we see in the opening movie traveling by train with Tatyana, but things turn sinister as reality shifts and we are left on a ghost train stuck in the woods following a ghostly image of Tatyana who beckons us to follow her deeper into the forest. The presentation at this point is outstanding with incredible environmental graphics, trees and grass blowing in the wind, eerie lighting and shadow, and fallout particles drifting around like aimless snowflakes. It’s all accompanied by a chilling soundtrack that continues throughout the duration of the game, creating and enhancing your emotional investment into the story and gameplay.
Unlike most games of the genre that are linearly driven by the story, here you are given unprecedented freedom to play Chernobylite pretty much how you see fit; at least once you’ve completed the somewhat linear intro and tutorial section. At first the game appears to have the standard crafting loop of collecting “junk” and turning those ingredients into something beneficial, but all too soon you are introduced to base building where you can collect scrap and turn it into useful equipment for your home base; everything from a workbench to a bed and much more. You also get to recruit companions and build a team that you can assign to daily missions, sending them out to forage for food, ammo, and other supplies. The larger your team the more objectives you can complete, which is crucial because missions expire in a day or two.
The core gameplay loop is completing these daily assignments for both you and your men, as well as slowly building up your base and other resources to tackle the increasing threat in the Zone. Igor has a nifty scanning device that can filter for a variety of resources, sending out a pulse to light up matching collectibles; a very useful tool indeed since the world design and environmental detail is surprisingly rich and complex, making it nearly impossible to find anything without this visual aid. You can carry a lot of items, most of it crafting materials while other more useful items can get assigned to quick access slots on the D-pad. Most items fall into either gear or food categories; something you learn when you start trading with vagabonds that wander the Zone.
Igor is a professor in search of a rare substance called Chernobylite that seems to be a byproduct of the Chernobyl explosion in 1986. This substance has several unique properties including triggering telepathy as well as emitting exotic energy that can be used to power Igor’s portable wormhole generator that allows him to open a tear in space-time and travel through it. The game makes expert use of this wormhole concept as well as time-shifting sequences that flash back to the 1986 disaster where we see scientists and staff trying to avert the infamous explosion.
There is a lot going on in Chernobylite, both narratively and in balancing the mission assignments and base building where you need to account for comfort, air quality, radiation protection, and sleeping accommodations. Survival outside the bunker is just as problematic as you must monitor not only physical health but also your mental state (or psyche) and the effects of persistent radiation that slowly eats away at your max health unless treated with a variety of crafted remedies. You also have larger environmental modifiers that can be crafted to actually improve your surroundings, but these must be concealed so monsters and enemy soldiers can’t find and destroy them.
From a visual perspective Chernobylite truly shines with some of the most impressive graphics I’ve seen this year. The level of photorealism is off the charts here with high-resolution scans of real-world locations used for photogrammetry quality backgrounds, models, and textures. We’ve all probably played at least one game or seen one movie with that signature Ferris wheel and other park rides nestled into that large complex of buildings in Pripyat. There is even a VR experience for the Oculus Rift that takes you on a meticulously accurate tour of Pripyat and the power plant. Chernobylite rivals even that documentary-style footage to create a hauntingly original game space both inside and out. Combined with fantastic character animation, lighting, shadows, and other particle and special effects, this is an exciting and unforgettable experience.
To balance all the praise I’ve been heaping on Chernobylite it’s worth noting the experience might not be for everyone. The pace of the game is slow, favoring stealth over direct encounters and combat. The enemy AI is brutally unfair, and once they detect you they seem to have this magical awareness of your location despite any efforts to break line-of-sight or hide. While the Fallout 4-style base building is fun in theory and does give you some agency over your game experience this type of gameplay doesn’t always blend in with traditional first-person survival games.
Those looking to explore the weapons’ side of things will find a rather disappointing selection of firearms with minimal upgrades and attachments; just another element that indicates stealth is prioritized over combat whenever possible. Your primary selection of weapons are pistol, shotgun, and machine gun, and the latter two are nearly impossible to find ammo for. There are a couple of other rare weapons that are so OP they nearly break the balance of the game. Enemies are also limited to maybe six types, most of which aren’t that scary and only threatening because of their Terminator-style AI and unbalanced scripting combined with poor aiming and no apparent targeting assist.
There is still plenty of fun to be had with Chernobylite and for the right type of gamer this could be your next Fallout 4 fix until something better comes along. Thoroughly exploring all the missions should make this experience last 10-12 hours, yet despite the non-linear approach to gameplay and the diversity that can arise from base and team building there is very little reason to replay Chernobylite. Most of the non-mission gameplay just seemed to artificially pad the experience, but I’m not the biggest fan of strategic base building unless it’s in a dedicated game such as Evil Genius 2.
Chernobylite is a great addition to the Russian post-apocalyptic niche genre, and while it is certainly no substitute for a game like Metro it does offer just enough originality, suspense, and intrigue to give it a look. If you’re on the fence about the balance of actual gameplay versus wading through base-building and crafting trees then you might want to wait for it to go on sale, but I found the game refreshingly original where the good elements balanced out the slower and more tedious aspects of gameplay. It’s definitely worth a look.
To see Chernobylite in action check out our PS5 first-look video where we complete the opening tutorial, do some base building, and even complete our first mission.
I love LEGO. I grew up with the plastic bricks, I own every single LEGO game, and I’ve seen every episode of LEGO Masters, so I was pretty excited when I heard about LEGO Builder’s Journey. Created by Light Brick Studio, this new puzzle game sounded like a great idea, solving puzzles using LEGO pieces. After all, every other LEGO game I had played up to this point was asking me to smash and destroy environments to collect bricks.
Despite a few camera and control issues, I really enjoyed LEGO Builder’s Journey when it released on PC last summer. I’m sure part of my infatuation had to do with the RTX support for ray-traced graphics, which brought these plastic pieces to life unlike any LEGO game before it, and now the game has made its way to the PS5 with most of those visual flairs intact. Some sacrifices had to be made on the console such as a native 1662p for 60fps mode, while activating ray-tracing knocks things down to 30fps; admittedly, not a big deal on a game such as this where you are playing mostly static screens with a bit of camera rotation available as needed. Rather than the typical Performance/Quality choice we often see in PS5 video options, now we only get a toggle for raytracing to determine FPS, resolution, and quality. While a powerful PC was able to render this game at native 4K with raytracing, the PS5 still manages to do an admirable job of upscaling to that same resolution even if the ray-tracing quality is only able to match the “medium” settings of the PC.A few of the issues I had on PC are still lingering on the PS5; namely a camera system that will always snap back to a default isometric view of the scene. In a 3D game such as this, being able to see the level from any angle is important, and I really want a totally manual camera, at least during the build process. And the control issues are also back. I found the PC version unplayable with an Xbox controller and resorted to mouse input for my time on the PC. Now that the game demands a gamepad, I was hoping the developers had sorted this out. Sadly, only a few levels into the game, the same issues arose, and I was unable to precisely pick-up and place pieces reliably. This leads to increasing frustration as more pieces are added into the mix and certain timing puzzles come into play that require fast and accurate placement of the stepping pieces that allow character movement. I’m also not a fan of using the same button for multiple actions such as using X to pick-up, rotate, and snap pieces based on tapping or holding the button.
If you are able to overcome these visual and control issues, then you are likely to enjoy your time with LEGO Builder’s Journey. Compared to the more action-oriented LEGO adventures out there, this one comes off as slightly boring with puzzles that were overly simplistic or not even puzzles. The game provides you with all the pieces needed to build whatever object or bridge you need to get from A to B and advance to the next scene. It was really weird to see these lovingly crafted dioramas swept away after only one or two clicks on some of the easier puzzles; the time of their creation versus their appearance onscreen vastly different.
There appears to be a story being told in LEGO Builder’s Journey, but I’m still a bit unclear on what it is. Presented as a silent movie of sorts we have what I assume to be a father and son on a camping trip, and once they return home dad keeps getting called into work at the nearby LEGO factory, meanwhile the son builds a LEGO robot in the basement then gets stuck in the factory so dad has to rescue him but then the son and his robot have to rescue dad…it’s all very confusing and quite unnecessary to the enjoyment of the game, which is all about solving a few dozen puzzles.
The basic premise of the game quickly became boring about ten levels in and only started to get interesting when the game introduced new concepts like playing in the dark having to position a LEGO spotlight in certain positions and angles to reveal the level. Much later in the game there are some cool puzzles involving creating your own LEGO pieces using a machine to duplicate whatever piece you have on a scanner. And my favorite puzzles were at the very end where your robot would only dispense single stud pieces and you had to place them on the level adjacently to create bigger and more useful pieces.
Despite the charming visuals, soothing music, and almost Zen-like approach to gameplay I was always taken out of any joyous moment with the controls and my inability to accurately place pieces. There were a couple of puzzles that required very fast timing and precise LEGO placement to get your character across muddy sinkholes or moving machine parts. These would have been great if I hadn’t died so many times due to poor controls. Even moving your character can become quite tedious since you have to place these orange stepping bricks one after the other to move him along. On one level I manufactured a dozen of these bricks and had the entire path lain out but the character only moves after placing the piece, so I literally had to pick up and reattach each piece to move him forward. There are a few levels where your character is wearing skates and you get to build a train track-like path from start to finish out of smooth tiles then watch him skate to the end.
LEGO Builder’s Journey is equal parts pain and pleasure. I love seeing how realistic LEGO blocks can look in a game and I hope to see this level of quality in future LEGO action games, but for me this was more of a proof of concept tech demo. You can finish the game in 3-5 hours, and thanks to the new Creative Mode you now have reason to stick around after the story. I even mentioned in my PC review that this game was in desperate need of a sandbox mode, and somebody must have heard me.
The new Creative Mode allows you to construct your own dioramas using a collection of themed scenes as a base then offers you a curated selection of bricks that fit with those themes. This mode even assists you by automatically “suggesting” your next piece based on your last, or you can just dive into the toy box for whatever piece you want, and the handy paint tool lets you recolor the scene to create the perfect masterpiece. Naturally, the game offers a fun photo mode where you can adjust lighting and camera angles to snap and share images of your creations. While not exactly as freeform as dumping a few thousand bricks on the carpet and going wild, this Creative Mode is just the breath of fresh air LEGO Builder’s Journey needed.
Thankfully, there is nothing wrong with this game that can’t be fixed in a future patch or update, but if they haven’t done it yet then I doubt they will. $20 for a few hours of awkwardly snapping LEGO pieces into environments somebody else had all the fun making seems like a bad idea. The new Creative Mode is certainly a step in the right direction as far as content is concerned, but when the game is fundamentally flawed at the control and camera level I am cautious to make a recommendation. Even diehard LEGO enthusiasts such as myself might want to wait for a sale because LEGO Builder’s Journey still seems to be a better raytracing tech demo than an actual game.
You can check out the first half-hour of the game in our PS5 First Look video to see the graphics, hear the music, and watch me struggle with snapping pieces together fast enough to get out of a mud pit.
Studio Sloclap and publisher Microids are pleased to announce that Sifu’s retail versions for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 (Vengeance Edition) as well as PC (Deluxe Edition) are now available. Following their multiplayer hit Absolver released in 2017, Sloclap’s second game Sifu is an artful and true-to-combat Kung Fu game exploring themes of revenge and redemption!
The Vengeance Edition includes:
An exclusive SteelBook® case
Sifu’s standard edition for PlayStation®5 or PlayStation®4
‘The Art of Sifu’ artbook
The original game score (digital)
3 lithographs
>PC players can also purchase the retail Deluxe Edition*. It includes 3 lithographs, as well as a download code that gives access to the game’s PC (Epic Games Store) version, ‘The Art of Sifu’ digital artbook and the digital soundtrack.
*Retail PC Deluxe Edition available at select retailers. Check your local retailers for availability in your territory.
About Sifu
Featuring the gripping intensity of classic Kung Fu films with realistic and raw combat, Sifu tells the story of a young Kung Fu student who has spent their life training for a day of reckoning after the brutal murder of their entire family by a mysterious assassination squad.
Sifu’s unique gameplay sits in the crossroads of two established and popular genres, mashing the intensity and timeless thrill of beat’em up with the gripping design of 3D action games. Set against a detailed backdrop of a fictional Chinese city, you will uncover an ancient mystery via a series of difficult confrontations that will test your skills to their limit! To overcome the odds that are heavily stacked against you, you’ll need to rely on your mastery of Kung Fu and on a magical pendant that will revive you after death. The cost of magic is dear, however, and you will age significantly every time you come back to life. Time is the price you will pay for your revenge.
The game’s exquisitely hand-drawn art style pays tribute to Kung Fu film classics where themes of revenge and redemption are timeless tales, all perfectly blending with Sloclap’s martial arts gameplay expertise. Sifu offers a unique approach to martial arts and its themes, making this game a true initiatory journey.
Coming up on its 9th anniversary, The Stanley Parable is perhaps one of the best examples of a “walking simulator” ever conceived. The premise is simple; you snap out of your daily work coma to find the entire office building has been deserted. Where did everyone go, and more importantly, how do you get out? Those are just two questions that kept gamers glued to their PC’s back in 2013 and beyond, and with the release of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe remaster/sequel/follow-up, it’s time once again to lose ourselves in that twisty maze of office cubicles, hallways, and warehouses; now with nearly triple the content and just as much fresh humor.
As the title hints, you’ll be playing Stanley, exploring a deserted office building filled with secrets and mysteries. Along for the ride is the narrator (voiced by Kevan Brighting), a voice in your head that will try to guide you along your adventure with real-time narration that not only calls out your immediate actions but also hints at what you are supposed to be doing. Obviously, this is where the potential for great humor and conflict comes into the mix, as you are not obligated to follow the narrator’s suggestions. In fact, much of the humor and extended gameplay derives from explicitly ignoring and disobeying your verbal guide. So when presented with two doors, right and left or red and blue, and the narrator tells you to go through one your first reaction is to do the exact opposite. This contrary behavior pretty much carries over to ever decision you can make in the game. When a sign warns of a $5000 fine for jumping off a cargo lift you are naturally going to jump off it.
The story is constantly evolving due to these nearly non-stop decision points and seemingly endless branches in the narrative that will lead to just as many end-game moments and subsequent restarts, as per design. There is no penalty for failure other than being sent back to your office to start your Groundhog Day nightmare over and over, but even then new events occur and fresh narration awaits, all influenced by the events from previous trips through the office. While there is one proper ending to the game that you can easily reach in less than 10-15 minutes by simply following instructions, there is countless hours of content exploration beyond that simple ending, and just when you think there is nothing left to experience you will stumble on something new.
This new Ultra Deluxe edition asks you straight up if you have played the previous version and saying yes will grant you access to the new content a bit sooner. Eventually a door will unlock with a big neon sign pointing toward the new content, which is just as hilarious, charming, and entertaining as everything you have experienced up to that point. The game gets extremely meta as the narrator becomes self-aware and the whole concept of reality starts to fold in on itself. No spoilers here, but you can watch my videos for both the original game and the new content if you want to see Stanley in action. There will be spoilers.
The Stanley Parable is one of the best narrated adventures of all time; perhaps only matched by Bastion, which achieved more mainstream fame and acclaim due to its presence on consoles. This new Ultra Deluxe version of The Stanley Parable is also now on consoles and for my review I was playing on the PS5. The game has been entirely remastered in the Unity engine and looks fantastic considering the limitations of the simplistic art style. But nobody is here for graphics; this is all about story, presentation, and discovery. To that end expect some fiendishly clever trophies that will keep non-cheating gamers from getting a platinum trophy until 2032. Another trophy requires you to play (or at least have the game running) for 24 hours on a Tuesday. It’s absurd content like this that makes The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe just as fresh and entertaining as it was nearly a decade ago.
I never got around to reviewing the original game back in 2013, so I was very happy to get to review this latest version, and now that you can play The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe on consoles as well as PC the potential audience for this game has grown exponentially. I really can’t recommend this game highly enough. If you are looking to chill, laugh, and explore endless possibilities in a leisurely fashion while under the constant guidance of a narrator that will make you feel like you are trapped in a Monty Python skit then you’ve found your game.
